Remembering D-Day: Carrizozo man recalls Normandy, the Bulge

Carrizozo man recalls Normandy, the Bulge

Claude Hobbs, 93 at the time of this photograph, has a great memory and recalls many of the events connected to D-Day. (Courtesy)

Only in the last few years has Claude Hobbs, 94, talked about his participation in D-Day and the 312 days he spent on the front lines in Europe, including the Battle of the Bulge.

"One hundred sixty-four of us went over together and 23 came back together," he said of the members of the 477th Automatic Weapons Army Battalion. "More came back, but they were wounded during the war."

This year, to commemorate the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, that signaled the beginning of the end to World War II in Europe, Hobbs will be the grand marshal in the Miners Day Parade, and last week, he carried the flag at Memorial Day ceremonies in White Oaks.

Claude Hobbs at 22. (Courtesy)

Born in Lincoln County, he lived in Ancho and now in Carrizozo, He was 22 when he was drafted in 1942, and received his training at Fort Bliss in Texas before going to Death Valley, where he was drilled in conditions to mimic Africa. But that part of the war was over by the time he finished. He attained the rank of corporal at Fort Bliss, and became an instructor. Although he was offered chances during the war to become a sergeant and take over other crews, he said he wanted to stay with his own men. "Money didn't mean anything, it was your life you cared about," Hobbs said.

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D-Day launched

Allied forces perpetrated a major deception to convince German military leaders the invasion would occur at Calais, France. The real target was a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast, divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword Beach. Eventually, 39 Allied divisions were committed to the Battle of Normandy, 22 American, 12 British, three Canadian, one Polish and one French, representing more than a million troops.

"We were loaded on the ship the night before in the dark," Hobbs said. "We were supposed to land on (Omaha) F sector, but they hadn't cleared the beach so we landed above there. The ship had sunk and we had to go in ahead of time and walk down to our sector. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon when I went on (the beach) and the Navy had (hit the area) with heavy artillery there. The German infantry was trying to keep us from going up the only road that led out of there. They were trying to hold that road. We just had rifles and hand grenades for three or four days. We were trying to get those Germans out from behind those hedges.

"There were 3,500 dead on the beach when I landed there. We didn't lose a whole lot of our men there, we lost them later on."

Eventually, heavy artillery waves helped them move out, Hobbs said.

Although he was trained on automatic weapons that shot about 120 rounds a minute of 3.5 pound shells, he didn't have that equipment when he landed. "They brought the automatic weapons in three days later," Hobbs said. "We had a half-track with four machine guns mounted on it synchronized to shoot about 2,700 rounds a minute, and another machine gun for backup."

He landed with the 29th Infantry Division.

"We were attached to them and then after that 60 days, they said there wasn't enough of the 29th left, so they pulled them out and brought the 28th in and we were attached to the 28th, where we stayed a long time," Hobbs said. "Then they took us out and sent us to southern France to the 3rd Division for a while. Then they brought us back to northern France back to the 28th again. They demanded we come back, so we were attached to them until the war was over. When the war was over, they tried to pull us into the 28th and do away with our unit. So I was discharged from the 28th Division, but was only part of it for about three weeks before I came home."

His total time in Europe amounted to more than a year, he said. The division went to France, Belgium, Luxembourg and into Germany. "I have five campaign stars," he said, including one for Normandy, three from sections of France and one from Ardennes.

Battle of the Bulge

Hobbs was swept into the Battle of the Bulge in December of 1944 through January 1945, a major German offensive in the Ardennes region on the Western front toward the end of the war. The surprise attack caught Allied forces unprepared and became the costliest battle in terms of casualties for the United States, whose forces took the brunt of the attack.

"We only lost two men on our (crew), we were lucky," Hobbs said. "We were right on the front line when it hit. We were attached to the 28th Division and they were holding a 24-mile front. When the Germans hit, we didn't have enough men to hold it. We backed off and let the tanks go through. When the gas trucks came, we shot them up so they wouldn't have any gas. So the Germans just rode in their tanks till they ran out of gas and there wasn't nothing they could do but surrendered."

As the offensive progressed, "They wanted to hold off the Germans as long as they could to get most of our men out of there," Hobbs said. "They left five us on each (machine) gun and after that, we were on our own. We had to leave those guns. We walked five days before we found anymore troops, 64 miles."

He spent 312 days on the front lines, Hobbs said. "They went to drafting 18 year old boys," he said of the U.S. government. "But, most didn't come in until later."

Coming home

He landed in Boston and took a train home.

Hobbs returned largely unscathed physically, "a little shrapnel in my stomach," and a hip injury from a shell that hit nearby. "There's nothing you can do," he said. "You just get up and move."

He suffered for years from nightmares. He would wake up frantic, he said. "I used to have a dream in the night and jump up and run and hide," he said. "I could hear the shells falling. You know, having a dream. Used to more so (then) than now. I haven't done that in a long time."

"I never did talk to nobody about it for years," Hobbs said. "I just went on. I got off the train here in Carrizozo, walked up the highway and then caught a ride to my home in Ancho, grabbed a job and went to work."

Hobbs married wife, Annie, who died in 1995. They had three children and he worked on ranches, then spent 15 years with the U.S. Forest Service as a range rider, a dream job for him.

For awhile some of his service friends stayed in touch. A few reunions were pulled together, but today, only one other former soldier and Hobbs remain from the original battalion. "He lives in Oklahoma," Hobbs said. "He originally lived in Hobbs, but now he lives with his daughter, if he's still alive. I haven't heard from him in several months."

As for serving in the military today, Hobbs said, "They have changed things, so anymore, it's not like it was then. I never watch war movies, just don't look at that. I don't know if it's better for the soldiers today. They have a lot more things, but I don't know if it's better or not."

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